Monday, July 27, 2015

Understanding it "Inside Out"

This one’s for a lot of people
1)For all those who ever read a self-help book
2)For those who ever wanted to know why they behave the way they do
3)For those who ever wondered what emotions are

If you see one movie for self-betterment in a year, see this one. Called "Inside Out", this comes form the house of PIXAR and goes well past the usual PIXAR creatives and fairy-tales, right into your head.

Through a character Riley, which could truly be just me or you, it goes into the subconscious of every human and how emotions govern or misgovern our behaviour.

I’ll not go into too much details of the movie though there are some spoilers here.

It starts with, well, how we are born with two emotions: Joy or Sadness. As we grow, various other emotions take birth in our head, i.e. Disgust, Anger and Fear. All those emotions exist for our good, but when we let any one emotion take complete control, that is when the trouble starts, and the worst of them all, is obviously, Anger.

Each lifestage teaches us somethings and forms a core memory which we fall back on for every future action: Friendship, Family, Fun and Honesty to name a few. These are core memories which essentially define us, that are a constant source of Joy, in good times and bad. Some core memory might be a source of grief and talks of a time which we would not like repeated.

Joy and Sadness are indeed temporary. When Joy and Sadness fight amongst themselves, they essentially let the other three emotions take control. And if Anger takes control, it is a grave risk to our core memories. The first signs of cracks in core memory of family and friends come because two Anger emotions collide, when none is ready to back down and essentially wants to “put the foot down”. Fear and Disgust are supporting emotions which feed Anger, but Anger takes centrestage.

This Anger then leads to decisions, which an otherwise happy person would not take. Fun and Honesty take the first toll, and Anger continues to grow stronger. The person might want to run away from it all, back to the "Good Old Days" to escape the situations. Joy seem lost in the depths of memory. And if, Joy and Sadness do not arrive in time, the entire structure of the person is soon gone. Will they arrive in time, and how, is the existential question every mind grapples with.

Human mind, through emotions is capable of dealing with any situation. As long as it is a multitude of emotions controlling it. When the response to each adverse situation is any one emotion, situations get worse. You can’t just ignore a bad situation and be happy, neither can you just grieve and do nothing and nor can you just be angry all the time.

And what is more, these emotions are at constant conflict in every human head. Eg: While anger is active in one head, fear might be controlling the other. Not that these two heads can never be together, when Joy is controlling both, they will have a gala time, they will be stronger in family/friendship when Sadness controls both. Joy in one and Joy+Disgust in the other might just create a core memory of Fun!

Philosophical already? Go watch the movie. You will endure 2 hrs of “kiddish, animated movie” but trust me, internalisation is well worth it.